From Goodreads,"In the tradition of Out of My Mind, Wonder, and Mockingbird, this is an intensely moving middle grade novel about being an outsider, coping with loss, and discovering the true meaning of family.
Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life... until now.
Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read."
Goodreads - Counting by 7s
Awards:
- BEA Buzz Book for Middle Grade (2013)
- An E.B. White Read Aloud Honor Book (2014)
- Children's Literature Council Excellence in Middle Grade Fiction (2014)
A co-worker of mine read this book last year and she told me I had to read it. She bragged and bragged about this book. She told me she would let me borrow the book as soon as one of her students returned it. Needless to say, I don't think they ever returned the book. I got tired of waiting and just ordered the book myself. I finally got around to reading it a few months after it arrived in my Scholastic book box. I'm glad I read it, and I'm hoping that one of my students enjoys it as much as I did.
This book starts out with a tragic accident where Willow's parents are both killed in a car accident. The book then jumps back and gives us more backstory to what happened and what led everyone to the position they were in on the evening of the accident. Willow is quickly shuffled to a new home, a new life, and a new family. Throughout the book we observe Willow going through the motions and through small bits of depression. Everyone in this book made changes and everyone had to adjust to a new family, new friends, a new home, and a new way of life.
There was a quote that really stayed with me, even after I had finished the book. It was, "All reality is a blender where hopes and dreams are mixed with fear and despair. Only in cartoons and fairy tales and greeting cards do endings have glitter." I love this quote because it is such a great analogy for life. Life is full of emotions and they are always all mixed together. Things also don't turn out like you had planned. I myself always want things to be glittery and perfect in the end, but that isn't always possible. I really think that Willow was trying to get across the fact that she doesn't feel just sad that she lost her parents, but she has multiple feelings from what has happened. I think I took this quote personally because I like for everything to be in its own little tidy box. My happiness in one box, sadness in another, and so on and so on. This isn't reality, much like things can't always end with glitter.
I also like how there was a strong message that you can't dwell on what has happened, but instead you have to live life. Willow could have mourned and mourned, but she didn't. She collected herself and started a healing process to move on from what had happened. I believe that Willow's love for plants was a metaphor in the book. While her parents were alive she was thriving, healthy, and happy, just like her plants were. After the accident Willow had to learn how to move on and start living life. She wasn't able to start doing this until she planted new plants and started growing as a person. The plant was symbolic of her growing up and moving on. I really feel like this message ties back in with the quote I mentioned above. Willow knew that reality was all her feelings mixed together, much like the different plant varieties she invested in.
I also enjoyed the ripple effect in this book. One event happened that changed the course of lives for several people. This would be a wonderful teaching point. One person's action can impact the lives of many. Students don't realize how their actions affect other people, and I think this would be the perfect example to look at how many different lives were changed based on one person's actions. Along with this ripple effect, I enjoyed seeing Willow impact and help shape the people around her, like Dell or Quang-ha. I love books that have multiple messages in them, and this was definitely one of them.
Something I wasn't a fan of in this book was the change of narrators in the middle of a chapter. I often couldn't tell who was talking and it got confusing at times. I think that students would have a hard time keeping up with who was talking in each section of the chapter. It would have been better to have short choppy chapters that had one solid narrator throughout it, than to change narrators in the middle of the chapter. I have a few students who are looking forward to reading this book, and I'm hoping they will be able to keep the chapters and narrators straight.
I enjoyed this book and I'm hoping a few of my 4th graders will enjoy it too. I give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. I would have given it 5 stars, but the narrator situation bumped it down a half a star. This would be a good read for educators and older students. I'm not sure how much my 4th graders will enjoy it, but I'm looking forward to the discussions that can take place.
There was a quote that really stayed with me, even after I had finished the book. It was, "All reality is a blender where hopes and dreams are mixed with fear and despair. Only in cartoons and fairy tales and greeting cards do endings have glitter." I love this quote because it is such a great analogy for life. Life is full of emotions and they are always all mixed together. Things also don't turn out like you had planned. I myself always want things to be glittery and perfect in the end, but that isn't always possible. I really think that Willow was trying to get across the fact that she doesn't feel just sad that she lost her parents, but she has multiple feelings from what has happened. I think I took this quote personally because I like for everything to be in its own little tidy box. My happiness in one box, sadness in another, and so on and so on. This isn't reality, much like things can't always end with glitter.
I also like how there was a strong message that you can't dwell on what has happened, but instead you have to live life. Willow could have mourned and mourned, but she didn't. She collected herself and started a healing process to move on from what had happened. I believe that Willow's love for plants was a metaphor in the book. While her parents were alive she was thriving, healthy, and happy, just like her plants were. After the accident Willow had to learn how to move on and start living life. She wasn't able to start doing this until she planted new plants and started growing as a person. The plant was symbolic of her growing up and moving on. I really feel like this message ties back in with the quote I mentioned above. Willow knew that reality was all her feelings mixed together, much like the different plant varieties she invested in.
I also enjoyed the ripple effect in this book. One event happened that changed the course of lives for several people. This would be a wonderful teaching point. One person's action can impact the lives of many. Students don't realize how their actions affect other people, and I think this would be the perfect example to look at how many different lives were changed based on one person's actions. Along with this ripple effect, I enjoyed seeing Willow impact and help shape the people around her, like Dell or Quang-ha. I love books that have multiple messages in them, and this was definitely one of them.
Something I wasn't a fan of in this book was the change of narrators in the middle of a chapter. I often couldn't tell who was talking and it got confusing at times. I think that students would have a hard time keeping up with who was talking in each section of the chapter. It would have been better to have short choppy chapters that had one solid narrator throughout it, than to change narrators in the middle of the chapter. I have a few students who are looking forward to reading this book, and I'm hoping they will be able to keep the chapters and narrators straight.
I enjoyed this book and I'm hoping a few of my 4th graders will enjoy it too. I give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. I would have given it 5 stars, but the narrator situation bumped it down a half a star. This would be a good read for educators and older students. I'm not sure how much my 4th graders will enjoy it, but I'm looking forward to the discussions that can take place.
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